The National tribune., 1887-02-03

in similar spirit by Canada and England,
the present surplus in the Treasury would
disappear like dew on July morning in
paying for big guns and swift cruisers. As
a gun of high-power costs from 100000 to
100000, and cruisers of the type we are
now building from 100000 to S2,5O0,OOO,
it win be seen that 100000 OO-immense
as that sum appears to be-will not 60 very
far toward putting our $500 miles Of sea-
coast in proper condition for defense.
Should we need more money after all the
cash on hand is gone, it can be easily Sc
cured by increasing the rate of taxation on
tobacco, beer and whisky, and on imports.
All the revenue machinery is in good work.
ing order, ready for use, with trained Off
Gals, approved methods, and the country
accustomed to the system. We could raise
four or five times the present amount of
revenue without the appointment of an adj
ditional official, and without the slightest
disturbance of the general business of the
country. If we reduce the revenue any
more we will have to dry up these sources
of income, break down our whole system,
dismiss the officials whom it has cost us so
much to train, abandon machinery that re-
quired an immense expenditure of money
and vast amount of mercantile and politi-
cal Generalization to bring it to its present
perfection.
We would be exceedingly foolish to do
this now, if for no other reason than the
posture of affairs in Europe. Everybody on
the other side of the ocean whose opinion is
worth having believes that the Spring viii
usher in the most gigantic European war
since the days of Napoleon. No man living
can say, once begun, what direction it will
take, or who will be involved. OF course
we have every reason to expect that the
storm will not come near our shores, but it
will not do to count too confidently on this
We thought the same way during the wars
of the First Napoleon, and made every effort
to avoid foreign entanglements, but the war
such feeling of security that when the war
came it found us wholly unprepared, and a
series of most shameful disasters resulted
When war does come upon us-as war
will in the not distant future-we shall have
all that we can do to create an army and
navy and equip them. We will not want to
have, as we did during the rebellion, to create
also a system of taxation to raise the money
to meet the extraordinary expenses of the
war.
A still more powerful argument against
any meddling with our revenue system at
present is the exceedingly detrimental effect
such course would have upon our reviv-
ing business. All our commerce, manufac-
turing and farming are now carefully adj
justed to the present system of taxation.
To disturb that system is TO disturb every
thing else, and introduce doubt and fear
where certainty and confidence should reign,
particularly at this time, when everything
points to a great revival of business activity
and increase of prosperity.
The moment we begin to talk about re-
ducing the duty on an article that moment
a paralysis rms through every ramifcation
of the business of producing, manufacturing,
buying and selling it. The retailer is only
going to buy from hand to mouth falling
market is a terror to him. The wholesaler
and manufacturer are similarly frightened,
and the producer of the raw material
the farmer, the miner, the rancher, or whose
ever he may be-fnds his product thrown
back on his hands until the question is set
tied.
If any portion of this taxation was bur-
densome, if it oppressed individuals or in
dustries, these reasons against any interior
ence would have less weight. But the re-
verse is the truth. The taxes are so light,
and their adjustment is so equable, that few
if any are conscious of being taxed at all
Therefore, why disturb a condition of things
to which every one is reconciled, and oil
which no one complains, to introduce new
order the benefit of which is very doubtful :
The talk about dangerous surplus is
nonsense. BY the time the bonds that the
Government has the right to call in are re-
deemed the present surplus will be reduced
as far as it is wise or prudent to reduce it al
this critical time in the history of Nations
| THE TOBACCO TAX.
Take for example the article of tobacco
The taxes on it are as follows:
Cigars manufacturers of per year-............ Sc o.
Cigars, PEE . "
t1gafets, per W. ~
Snu per pound q
Tobacco Of all kinds per pound ............... n
| Dealers IN manufactured tobacco, per year.. q
Dealers In leaf tobacco, per year, Wholesale. IL n
| Tobacco pcddeTs-mOre than two horses. 80 ID
Tobacco pcdders-two horses ................ 10 u
Tobacco pcddcrs-onc y
Tobacco pedders-on foot--........... ......... G
How insignificant all these are. They
are already as low Us they can well be mad,